A Mystery Pipe
by Wordlet
Summary: Luffy keeps a pipe stored on board the Thousand Sunny, not because he actually needs it to fight anymore, but because he can't quite let himself let go of the past he had. What happens when a certain cyborg finds it and considers it scrap metal? Or if a certain sniper needs a new fishing pole? My first posted fic! I hope everybody likes it!


Franky

Franky knew every inch of the Sunny. He designed her. He built her. He maintained her. So when he was cleaning out some of the farther reaches of the ship and came across a long segment of pipe (which he knew was a different size then the piping he used) he considered it scrap. He knew it wasn't a back-up part for anything, it wouldn't fit any of the machinery. It didn't look to have a particular purpose at all, and he'd remember if it did. It was just leaning against the wall deep in the bowels of the ship where only he went and where the wood floor still had almost no wear because even he didn't venture down here often.

He deemed it scrap and put it in a barrel with the rest of the metal he was melting down, he needed some to fix a dent in the General Franky suit, and he loved repurposing useless metal.

Franky stoked his fire and fed in a bucket of bent nails, they met the flames and fell into the melting pot with soft plops as the metal began to ooze. He had 3 barrels of scrap, that was plenty to fix his armor and maybe make something else for his nakama, a new flowerbed for Robin? A new pot for Sanji? Did Chopper need two chairs? Luffy would appreciate a cool toy or something he was sure. He hummed a song and swung his hips while he worked, steadily moving through the barrels. To get the right quality he was using the long method, it took an hour or two but he needed some SUPER quality if it was to fix his armor.

He had half a barrel left, but Sanji had just yelled for dinner. If he didn't get up there someone would come down to get him, that or his food would be donated to Luffy. He decided that was alright, he couldn't leave the metal alone for a moment, and he really only needed cola anyway, he'd just be late.

More metal, more sizzling, footsteps on the stairs.

"Frannnnky! It's time to eaat and Sanji said he won't give me meat until you come!" Luffy peeked his head around the door frame and whined to Franky. Now he felt a little bad, poor Luffy-bro. He may eat enough to feed a battleship of marines, but he was truly hungry.

"Sorry Luffy-bro! I'll be up in a second! I'm just finishing melting down some scrap metal. My SUPER armor has a SUPER big dent!"

"Hhuuuuurrrryyyy, im hhhuuuunnnggrryy." He whined

"Just a few pieces left!" Franky promised and reached for the pipe. Luffy's eyes got wide as it neared the flames and he let loose a frantic shout.

"Franky!" The cyborg dropped the pipe towards the heat and turned to his captain.

"What Luffy-boooah!" Luffy's arm shot past him towards the fire and knocked several of his designs off the wall in the process. Luffy snatched the pipe from the flames and pulled it back to him, clutching it tightly as his hands sizzled lightly from the heat. His hat shadowed his eyes and Franky grabbed at a few floating papers before they could burn.

"Ow! Luffy-bro what are you doing?! You almost burned some of my SUPER designs!"

"Franky. Where did you get this pipe?"

"The pipe? Down below, it was just leaning on the wall..."

"Don't touch it." Luffy's head shot up and anger gleamed in his eyes "don't touch this pipe. It's not scrap. Its mine.

"Luffy? I'm SUPER sorry, but why...?"

"Doesn't matter." He turned and walked out of sight, up the stairs. "Take your time, I'm not hungry."

Franky stopped and stared, a few of his gears may have failed for a second there. His captain was not hungry. Oh this was not good at all...

Ussop

He KNOWS it wasn't there yesterday. He knows it was never there before, because it's so perfect he couldn't possibly just let it sit anywhere. He pulled it from its place in the back of the broom closet and held it in the light, admiring the length and the smooth worn edges. What a pipe... It could be used for so much! What was it doing with the mops? He frowned and held it under his arm while he retrieved a mop and bucket, toddling out to Brook who was waiting outside.

"There you go Brook! I'm sorry you got saddled with this. I think Nami's fist is tired today..."

"I will gladly take the punishment!" He laughed "it is worth the chance of her showing me her panties... And thank you Ussop-san for retrieving the mop! I can never fit in the closet quite right! Yohoho! That must be the problem with being 8 feet tall!"

"Heh! No problem Brook! Besides, then we'd have a skeleton in the closet!"

"Yohoho!"

"Skull joke" they both chorused.

"I got something out of it too!" He chuckled hefting the pipe.

"Ohh Ussop-san what is that?"

"Im gonna make it my new fishing pole!"

"Ah! Good fishing then Ussop-san!"

"And good mopping Brook!"

They laughed and went their separate ways.

Ussop had outfitted the pipe with a winch and several metal studs that he twisted around in intervals served as eyes. He didn't trust his fishing string so he used a vine from a pop green as the line. With a pole as thick as this it would take a lot to break it and he was gonna catch something huge. Hooking his largest and juiciest lure (a piece of Sanji's steak which he'd carefully liberated from both Sanji and Luffy. Quite the feat) to the hook he'd attached he cast it far into the blue. Then he waited.

He hadn't fished alone for a long while. But Chopper was reorganizing his medicine in alphabetical order as he tried to make space for his new supplies from the last island, Brook was mopping, and Luffy was in a bit of a funk recently, though no one could get him to admit it. He just snapped back to his usual form whenever you got within 5 feet.

He pondered the questions of life while he sat, waiting. Maybe this part of the sea didn't have many fish? And then he felt the tug. He sat up straight and focused on his pole. This was it.

And it really was. The pipe jerked nearly out of his grip and he shouted a war cry as he leaned with all his weight back onto the ship. Like heck this fish would better the great captain Ussop!

"Yosh!" He tugged and leaned, reeled in a little, lost a little ground, his arms started shaking. Well this wasn't going too well at all... Time for backup.

"LUFFY COME HELP ME NAIL THIS FISH!"

He started pulling it across the deck, staggering away, reeling the fish closer and closer...

"Whoah! Ussop it's huge!" Luffy was suddenly at the rail where his line went in the water. "Let me pull it in, let me pull it in!" He cheered and stretched towards him, a rough smile plopping happily into his features.

"Yosh! Here!" Ussop shoved the pole into Luffy's hands and time seemed to freeze for just an instant. Luffy's eyes widened when his skin touched the pipe and his hands moved into a position akin to how one would hold a staff, not at all like a fishing pole. His mouth fell open in a short 'O' and then time unfroze. The fish gave a mighty tug and Luffy went flying across the deck, over the edge and into the ocean with a splash.

"LUFFY!" Ussop screeched and leaped over the rail after him, in the time it would take to get Zoro or Sanji that fish could be halfway across the calm belt!

He blinked underwater and stroked frantically after Luffy, who was being dragged through the water by what appeared to be a small sea-king. He cursed in his head and grabbed on to Luffy's arm as he was dragged through the ocean. Climbing up to where Luffy's grip was iron on the pole, he began prying at his fingers. Luffy was half dead to the world, but when Ussop worked at his fingers his eyes shot open and he shook his head frantically. What? Luffy's grip tightened around the pole. Ussop stared for a few seconds before remembering the dire situation and whipping out a pocket knife and beginning to saw through the vine. Bubbles erupted from Luffy's face as he lost control of his muscles and relaxed, his fingers remained clenched a moment longer, long enough that the knife snapped through the vine and they began sinking instead of being pulled at top speed. Ussop hauled Luffy up through the water, toting the pole as well, and they broke the surface when Ussop thought he wouldn't last another second dragging a waterlogged Luffy around. He sputtered and breathed and tried to coax Luffy into hanging on his shoulders, but his captain was out, water dribbling slowly off his chin from his mouth. Ussop cursed under his breath and looked around for the Sunny, there, they hadn't gone too far. In fact, the mini-Merry and the Waver were both heading towards them. Nami pulled up first looking a bit worried and a bit annoyed at the top of Luffy's head.

"What the heck happened to you two? You're almost half a mile away!"

"Fishing." Ussop gasped at her "Take him. Heavy..." She leaned over and tugged half of Luffy's weight onto the waver, he couldn't balance himself so she couldn't take him all the way on but Ussop was relieved all the same.

The Mini-Merry appeared, bringing a frantic Chopper and Franky to steer. Chopper lugged Luffy on board and worked the water out of his lungs while they all chugged back to the Sunny. Ussop rode behind Nami, eyeing the staff.

"Ow! Ussop-bro! What did you do to that pipe?"

"It's my new fishing pole." He answered "I gotta get new line now though."

"You better fix it! That's Luffy-bros pipe! He got SUPER mad before when I thought it was scrap metal!"

"Ohhh..." So that was why he wouldn't let go of it, and he was shocked when Ussop had given it to him to reel in a fish...

"What was that Ussop? Franky?" Nami called back over the waves.

"Nothing Nami." Ussop assured. And immediately started undoing the fixtures he'd added to the pipe.

A few minutes later Luffy was up and coughing and after that when Chopper finally let him go he took the pipe from Ussop's hand and shot him an absolutely scathing glare. Ussop's knees were knocking for the next hour as he tried to keep it from his mind and later that night, he woke up sweating from a nightmare. And he doubted he was even treated to half the power Luffy put into the same glare he always sent to the real enemies Luffy faced down.

Brook/Nami

Nami pulled her fingers through her hair, combing out the water and tangles. She wrapped a towel around her torso and waved away some steam, pulling another towel from the pile and wrapping up her hair. A loud clank echoed in the cavernous shower room and Nami jumped, turning towards it. A long pipe rolled towards her along the ground, coming to a rest against her ankle. Nami knelt and picked it up, weighing it in her hands. Huh, where had it come from? She shrugged and tightened the towel, then swung open the door so that it would hit Brook in the head nice and hard.

"Oh! Nami-san! Hello..."

"Brook. I've told you not to stand outside while I'm taking a shower."

"Oh but Nami-san, I was hoping to ask... Could I pl..."

"NO" She doubled up on the door's hit so that Brook sprouted a new bump and cried a little at the denial.

"Oh Brook, do you know what this is?" Nami hefted the pole she had found, "it was in the shower."

"Ahhh. That looks like Ussop-sans new fishing pole!"

"Really? It doesn't look like a fishing pole..."

"He said he was going to make it a fishing pole. It's really just a pipe."

"Hm. He left it in the bathroom, do you know where he is?"

"I believe he's working in his garden."

"Kay. Thanks Brook."

Nami turned and strode outside, looking for Ussop, he deserved a quick scolding for leaving a heavy pipe in the bathroom, just loose like that.

Upon stepping outside Sanji appeared, twirling and happy to see his beloved Nami-swan.

Brook followed close behind, carefully planning to ask for a peek once more.

"Nami-swwwwaaannnn!"

"Nami-san, please reconsider..."

Her towel suddenly slipped an inch and without a second thought she whipped the pipe around as a staff, forcing the two into the deck.

"DONT CROWD ME" she yelled and fixed her towel. Sighing as she looked at the steaming bumps she'd administered. Served them right.

She marched across the deck, towards Ussop's garden, suddenly Luffy landed in front of her and she took a step back. His hat was shadowing his eyes, but he wasn't smiling, and she could see his fists clenching slightly.

"Nami-san, please..."

"NO I TOLD YOU ALREADY!"

She swung the pipe again but it never made contact, Luffy appeared between the pipe and Brook, holding a hand around the pipe and looking livid.

"Luffy?"

"This is my pipe Nami. I'll take it." And he did. It took a flick of the wrist and it was out of Nami's grasp, and Luffy walked away with it held firmly but gently in both hands.

Nami and Brook exchanged glances, and then watched him disappear inside. Sanji appeared next to her and began swooning once more.

Fight scene

Some experienced band of pirates that were complete nobodies in the new world thought it would be a great idea to earn themselves a place in the papers by taking down the Strawhat crew. They attacked the Sunny around noon, right when Luffy was getting particularly whiny about needing food. The captain had a devil fruit, the snooze-snooze fruit, and the moment he stepped on deck Zoro was out of the fight. He kept putting Ussop's plants to sleep and when Franky punched him he hit the deck with a snore. 3 fighters down, Robin theorized that his fruit offered the body a suggestion of rest and that it was more concentrated upon contact, which was why close proximity had put the ever-sleeping Zoro down and contact removed plants and Franky.

"So you can't fight him, Sanji can't fight him, Chopper can't fight him, Luffy can't fight him, and Ussop would have to revert to his old techniques. And Brook can't fight him because he's entertaining" Nami gestured to the small dance contest that Brook was holding with a large group of enemies, all of whom were dreaming they were at the Grand Line championships. "That leaves me." Nami concluded "A simple thunderstorm should be plenty..."

"No." Luffy stepped up beside her "Use that on the crowds, I'm kicking that one's butt..." And he walked past her and down below deck, clearly not worried as he strolled through the door.

"But! Luffy you can't..." Nami called after him before Robin stopped her.

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing. He must have a new technique he can use here."

"Ugh. Fine." Nami turned and tripped an enemy who was running towards her and promptly knocked him out.

It took a few minutes, but Luffy came out, eyes shadowed once more, he seemed to be doing that an awful lot lately.

In his hand he held a long length of pipe.

Ussop looked a little scared and Nami blinked at him, but he just kept walking through the fray to the enemy, who was firing little purple Zs from his fingers like guns. He'd hit Chopper a second ago and the reindeer was conked out against a wall, snuffling a little as he licked his lips in some sort of dream.

He turned the Zs on Luffy, but it wasn't at all hard to step aside and let them zoom past.

And then Luffy was there, both hands gripped on the pipe, the _staff_ , Nami realized, in a comfortable stance. He swung up and hooked in under his arm, throwing the man into the air. He jumped and followed, pounding him back into the deck and landing behind him to administer a swift swipe to squash him between the mast and the staff. Then a stab, and another swipe. The man grabbed for Luffy's leg but only brushed it with his fingers till momentum had him flying over the guard rails and dropping into the sea. A few moments later, many of his crew were diving to rescue him.

Nami looked back to her battle in a sudden realization that she was supposed to be fighting, the enemies were burnt and black but still charging forward as New World enemies seemed to like doing.

Luffy can use a staff...

The message ran through every conscious strawhat's mind as they fumbled with reason to help it make sense.

Luffy? And a weapon? It seemed impossible, the image wasn't believable as they pictured the fight again. But, with Luffy, everything was possible, everything and anything.

Speaking of the impossibility, he was slumped against the mast now, staff held loosely in open palms, balanced on his knees as he fell into a dream induced by the touch of the devil fruit user.

Robin grew arms and defended him against a few of the enemy crew that thought they could attack her sleeping captain and brook collected a new audience as the last group fell gasping to the floor in exhaustion. The battle wouldn't last long at all.

Zoro woke up 10 minutes after the fight ended and was seriously irked that he'd missed every bit of the fight. Luffy, Franky and Chopper were all still asleep, apparently the direct attack was more concentrated. Sanji gave him a (very) simplified version of the battle (Sanji. Epic. Nami-swan and Robin-chwan. Beautiful. Luffy. Beat Enemy. With staff. Marimo. Slept.) and Robin elaborated for him. He agreed he'd never seen Luffy use a weapon. Franky woke up an hour later when Ussop jokingly waved a cola under his nose and Chopper started when Sanji started making dessert. Luffy did not. Chopper confirmed that there was no reason why he should stay asleep, and that he appeared to be dreaming. Chopper also saw no reason to wake him up as a small smile would often settle onto his sleeping features every few minutes before slipping off. They left the pipe leaned up against his hammock when they moved him in,

It took two hours, but Luffy trudged into the kitchen, dragging his pipe and grumbling about breakfast. Sanji made bacon for him and no one asked why he (between Franky's and Ussop's frantic urging and Luffy's shifting to keep it close every time they'd moved him) never once lost contact with the mysterious pipe.

A week later two crooked nails appeared on the wall in the men's bedroom, the pipe balanced carefully on them as though on display. Beneath written in sloppy red paint that Ussop had announced missing the day before was a brief message and warning.

Luffy's. Do Not Touch.

Sabo

Not long after the pipe went up and Luffy had finally calmed down from the instances of his friends touching _his_ pipe (he couldn't bring himself to be mad at them for long but he also didn't tolerate his pipe being handled without his permission. Between Ace and the long ago Sabo… Anyone else wielding it had recently resulted in a flare of anger he couldn't seem to quench.) they fell into the Dressrosa situation. And once that was finally resolved and they'd all headed off for Zoa, he'd positively refused to allow Sabo out of his sights just yet. And so, Sabo was taking a quick detour on his way from Dressrosa back to base, and heading to Zoa to spend a smidge more time with his not so little, little brother.

Luffy of course required Sabo to take a full tour of the Sunny. This lasted the entire day as each location came with a short story, short, in Luffy's standards of course, was not short. And also a lunch break in the kitchen, with snacks before the story and then after the story.

Eventually, Luffy pulled him into the men's bedroom, yawning and saying that this is where they slept and that once Nami told them they all argue in their sleep, and he never heard it but he imagined Sanji would say "Ah! Mellorine may I bring you some fruit cocktail?" And Zoro would say "I'm trying to sleep crap cook!" and then Chopper would scold Zoro for opening his wounds and Ussop would start bragging that he would defeat Zoro so that he would stay still and heal while Franky mumbled SUPER and Brook started sleep playing.

Sabo wasn't really listening after he heard Zoro's response as he caught sight of the pipe on the wall. Very slowly he ambled over and ran his fingers over the metal. Luffy trailed off in his story when he saw what he was looking at.

"Is this the same one?"

"Yup."

"You kept it?"

"Of course!"

"Do you ever use it?"

"Once."

"Fight me."

"Yes! Yay, thanks Sabo!"

Luffy skipped over and lifted the pipe off its nails, holding it aloft gingerly before gripping it tightly, grinning that radical, suicidal grin at Sabo and marching up the stairs, pipe slung over his shoulder, singing his island song.

Later, the pipe came to rest against his chair during dinner and when Sanji accidentally jostled it in his haste to bring Nami-swan a refill Sabo couldn't help but notice how everyone took a slight pause until Luffy caught it and resettled it with one hand, continuing to eat simultaneously.


End file.
